Tomorrow is finish off rocker covers etc, gearbox off, dmf and clutch off, drop the sump Then rear main seal. Clean all the silicon up then refit the sump and the fit the clutch Thursday.

Perfect choice of vehicle, great mindset in your approach to the work, I have a GTV myself and they certainly are a labour of love. Everytime you get to go for a blast and hear that busso from the 5k mark on it is all absolutely worth it.

Not a great day today.

Cambelt side is finished. I split gearbox from thr engine. Removed the DMF and clutch (pics to follow) then removed the sump to drop the rear main bearing cap this allowed me to replace the two silicone cigarette seals and the rear main seal

Unfortunately two bolts sheered on the sump. Steel screw in ally block :(

As they are M7 (Yes 7mm screws) i Drilled out and tapped to M8 . Cleaned it all up put the sump on and found after i had already applied sealant that i was missing one M7 screw.... not being common i couldn't get a replacement.

Ended the day stressed looking for thr last screw.

Id say ive slipped to almost a day behind schedule. Not good as i only have today abd thats it!

Sorry to hear of the setback Taylor, let us know if I can do anything to help!

What about tapping out the missing M7 hole to M8, as with the sheared bolt holes?

Thats the plan Mike.

But by that point i was tidying up the tools while also looking for the bolt.

So much time disappears and before you know it thr day is over with not much to show

Taylor, any chance of measuring the overall width of the engine, headers and all. The guy, Chris, who's building the same as me is fitting an Alfa V6 it would be handy to know if the engine bay needs extending.

 

Hope your day is going well.

 

Cheers Mike

 

Edit - Chris asked if you had a plastic impeller water pump or metal? if so worth thinking about swapping it out as they come loose..

Had bit of a day today!

 

Started off drilling and tapping the last sump bolts to M8, then walked over to the bench to put the taps away only to find the last sump bolt sat on the bench vice...

 

Fitted SMF, fitted Clutch, Aligned it all, Fittted pressure plate. Greased Clutch release bearing and arm bushes. Fitted release bearing to the input shaft

 

Mated the Gearbox and Engine together Pushed the release arm opposite to its normal travel to click the release bearing into place (pull clutch) then it was time to test it, it is known of owners to fit a clutch and not test it until its back into the car. only to find their clutch doesnt work. So i engaged a gear, turned both drive shafts and had someone push on the release arm with a jack handle, Clutch Engaged/Disengaged nicely - Happy Git!

 

Then drilled out the one sheered bolt on the Clutch Slave cylinder housing, Fitted Clutch Slave Cylinder, fitted the Starter Motor, fitted the Rear bank exhaust manifold (yes it does block the starter motor). Fitted the alternator and little bits of loom.  

 

Cut the old oil cooler lines to length, ready for the replacement kit. Fitted the fixed lines under the sump then about that time Danny turned up. Perfect timing to start fitting it into the car.

 

 

A few hours later and one near miss we had it in the bay, not properly bolted in, but in the bay. it was a complete Pig! lifting a large lump of metal such as the Busso V6 and gearbox was no easy task. 

 

Then we ran out of time.

 

As tomorrow is the last day heres our to do list:

 

Fit Engine Mounts

Fit Oil Cooler

Fit last engine parts (intake plenum, air lines etc)

Gear linkages

Coolant hoses, Header tank and bits

Loom

Last checks on the Engine, last few nuts and bolts to check etc, fit new Tensioner/Idler pulleys (when they turn up)

Subframe and Drive shafts (in new drop links as the old ones met an angle  grinder)

Exhaust

Fill with fluids, Engine Oil, Diff/Gearbox Oil, PAS, Coolant.

 

Then Start..... and wait for a weeks worth of work to end up in a mushy alluminium/oil mess on the floor LOL

 

Oh and have the A/C regassed. 

 

and maybe service the front brakes to stop an annoying squeak.

Mike, Ill give it a quick measure tomorrow for you

Hope tomorrow goes great for you Taylor, still can't wait to see, and HEAR, this!

haha me too Steve!

Good job mate, I don't even know you and feel proud! Lol Your going to have a cracking car when you've finished all this work.

sent from my Galaxy Note 4

Good job mate, I don't even know you and feel proud! Lol Your going to have a cracking car when you've finished all this work.

sent from my Galaxy Note 4

Then he'll probably sell it once it's finished

Getting there Taylor, well done.

Good work Taylor, fingers crossed for tomorrow.

Very impressive today, you really achieved a lot.

Awesome work. It'll all be worth it in the end.

Well Today was the day.

 

Nervously i awoke earlier that usual at 2:30 AM (ish) couldnt get back to sleep so wrote a to do list. Pretty detailed one too

 

Drove to london and set about work around 5:30 ish. The engine was already in the bay so it was a matter of bolting it in and getting everything in so it could hold fluids.

 

Problem after problem (top Ally engine mount thread was damaged by the hoist) so we had to drill that out to M10 Clearance. Not perfect. but hey to replace that engine bracket its a cambelt off jobbie.

 

Working away, before we knew it we were packing up at 8pm.

 

The Depot was locked up, tidied the tools up out on the path, but then we found my Gearbox/Diff fluid was low. decided as everywhere was shut, to nurse it home. upon going up to any kind of speed i found the exhaust heatshield is rattling like a pig an two stone guards on the ball joints are rattling on the discs.

 

But highlight is the Engine ticks over... well just about, it has a nasty misfire too atm which i need to find the source of.

 

I am writting this now within 10 minutes of getting home, still with a dirty face, as a physically exhausted and broken man.

 

Silver lininigs and all that. the job was a sucess. The Clutch works very nicely, and once i find the source of the mis ill be happier.

Well done on getting such a large task carried out

Update!

Misfire fixed. Both front and rear banks have lambda sensors.... which both have the same connector. ...... which are clipped about an inch apart from each other. ....

Hahah those italian electrics. Swapped the connectors over and misfire is fixed

Popped to Halfords in the hippo and collected some transmission oil. but needed a syringe to pump it in via the transmission oil dipstick. I did get a few funny looks walking into my local pharmacy asking for one haha.

Final thing to sort out is the rattling exhaust heat shields and the ball joint stone guards. Unfortunately danny has my axle stands as i ran out of space in the Alfa. So thats on hold until I can get hold of some.

Bricks Taylor, bricks! No need for these official axle stand thingies!

You have worked hard Taylor, no small task completed you must be happy now all the major things are sorted.  Give yourself a pat on the back lad  :clap:

Great.

Now get some of those pictures up.

Very well done Taylor! Much impressed!!

Photos! Some you may have seen before. Unfortuantely towards the end, time became pressed and pictures werent taken. :( But enjoy

 

Stripping the Engine bay

 

 

A bit more

 

 

 

Victory Pose

 

Just to prove nothing was in it.... at one point i may have been making engine noises too :p

 

 

Starting to strip the engine down. Here ive removed the Alfa Romeo Coil Pack cover, Coil packs 4, 5 and 6 and then removing the spark plugs

 

 

Here is the Engine set to TDC on Cylinder number one, seen measured with a Dial Test Indicator. Cam locks also fitted to cam shells B & G (rear bank) and 4 & 7 (front bank( The Intake plenum was removed, along with both Cam Covers, all 6 spark plugs and coil packs. bit of wiring too.

 

 

Mr OCD

 

 

Engine stripped further, I the Water pump removal meant the Coolant channel in the middle of the V came out as well, it was a faff getting the right size O-rings. The cam sprocket backing plates had been removed. Here you can also see (top left corner) the bolt which i later found to be damaged, as well as the ally mount To remove the mount there are 3 nuts, space around the Intake cam on the rear bank (2nd from left in photo) you may also notice that there is a threaded hole just to the right of the intake cam, this is the top idler pulley. so another words, to fix whether repair or replacement of that mount, is a cambelt off job. as the Camshaft sprockets and one of the idle pulleys would need to come off.

 

You can also see the interesting/weird shape of the water pump housing in the middle of the block

 

During the job i found many problems, mainly issues due to the age of the parts/car. The sump for example had never been off before, so 17 years of heat cycles with Steel bolts and Ally Block, meant things were going to seize and break. One thing i was surprised as was the condition of the Aux belt tensioner and pulley

 

http://vid264.photobucket.com/albums/ii191/Warlord_1011/Cars/Alfa%20GTV%20T530%20BFC/20150413_150043_zpsdiwjekwo.mp4